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Friday, June 26, 2015

The
rise of the Sangh Parivar and with it the BJP in its present form from the
1980s had initially led to a debate among the liberal intelligentsia as to
whether they could be characterised as ‘fascist’. The BJP along with the other
constituents of the Sangh Parivar in little more than a decade, from the
demolition of the Babri Masjid to the Gujarat pogrom, resolved that question.
On a more serious note, the debate within the Left about the nature of fascism
in India led to a wide spectrum of writings. One strand was based on either a
political critique [ii]aimed at exposing the
project of Hindutva in its pristine form as envisioned by Savarkar in 1923 and
later by Golwalkar in 1939 or by tracing the history of the Sangh Parivar from
its precursors to present times. The other strand was based on political
economy interpretations of European fascism of the 1920s and 1930s and
comparisons with the trajectory of the RSS led formation and expansion of the
Sangh Parivar. The two strands of scholarship overlapped and together formed
the basis of the political debate that was vital to the emergence of a progressive
praxis of wide alliance with all anti-communal forces against the BJP – a strategy
that had worked periodically in terms of checking its meteoric rise but broke
down under the contradictions of neoliberalism.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Abir Neogy

Society in West Bengal has taken a distinctly violent
turn. Within the wider sphere of rising violence, what is the character of
sexual violence we are witnessing everyday? It is being propelled, as all
evidence suggests, by a strong misogynist political current, informed by
patriarchal and propertied social and economic interests.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Antara Ray Chaudhury

Europe
has been in doldrums since the financial crisis of 2008 and various degrees and
shades of recovery, bailouts and assault of austerity drives have meant the
continent turning into a major cause of concern for the stability of global
financial order. The economic troubles have naturally meant radical effects in
political, social sphere across the continent and from Greece to Portugal and Spain;
the underbelly of Europe is suddenly rising in revolt. While it is interesting
to track the fortunes and trails of emerging progressive alternatives in Europe
in general; it is more necessary to place these alternatives in the broader
context of unprecedented might of finance capital. Only such historical,
dialectic view will help sober the unprecedented and sometimes unreasonable
expectations from the emerging alternatives and understand the gravity of the
situation better. It is in this context that the assessment of UK elections
results assumes critical importance.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Abdul Rahman

Amidst
the attempt to rewrite the history of the Second World War, the world is
celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s Victory over
Nazi Germany this year. It was on May 9th 1945 when the Soviet Red
Army took control over Berlin; the capital of Nazi Germany. This event has been
decisive in shaping world history in more than one way. This victory sealed the
fate of fascism and established the Soviet Union as one of the greatest powers
in international politics. The exclusive claims over the legacy of democracy
and protection of humanity put forward by the liberal world, their attempts to vilify
socialism as an undemocratic ideology were discredited by the narrations of
sacrifices made by the world’s first socialist nation and its people during the
war. Perhaps this is the reason that even after 25 years after the fall of the Soviet
Union, many nations are unwilling to acknowledge the facts and are trying to
manipulate them. This attempt is accelerated due to the re-emergence of fascism
in Ukraine and other parts of the world including in our own country.

Editorial

How do we see the world? It is neither a gaze, nor is it to invent the predetermined truth, it is to intervene from a position. Our seeing is changing at the same time and without any claim to excavate the unadulterated truth that never existed.
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